Comments for The Helpful Engineer

Comment on 3 obvious improvements for electric cars by brian t

brian t — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 13:06:41 +0000

When I read about wireless charging of cars, my first thought was “the driver better not have a pacemaker in his chest”! It will require a serious electromagnetic field, on a par with that found in transformers, but with less-efficient inductive coupling (since there is no continuous solid iron core).

I think a better short-term solution is to have standardised quick-swap battery packs. If the dimensions, connectors and voltages were standardised, you could pull up at the garage, have the discharged pack (or packs) yanked out and charged packs slotted in, in seconds.

Comment on French motorways: 7 ideas we should copy by Hon

Hon — Mon, 27 May 2013 22:48:42 +0000

Did anyone watch Billy Connolly’s Route 66? When the Highway opened many small towns were literally bulldosed out without road signs or slip roads to link to these towns, some of them literally vanished. Well in my opinion, Ireland being such a small country, going from Dublin to Limerick or Cork or Sligo is merely a 2 hour drive. Motorways and service stations is a new novelty in Ireland. We never felt welcomed when dropping into a local village pub to use the facilities without buying anything, yet local facilities are all there is, road side bush. When it comes to Highway Rest Stops, South Korea, Mental!

Comment on The cost of oil fired central heating per hour by Elaine

Elaine — Thu, 23 May 2013 14:24:20 +0000

We moved into a 15 year old 4 bed semi dormer bungalow late last year. During the winter we were using 300ltrs of oil a month yet only putting on the heating for 2.5hrs a day as we couldn’t afford to keep it on for longer (we were frozen). Every month we had to top up the tank with another 300ltrs, we have a lock on the tank so know it wasn’t being stolen. Could this usage be due to the age of the boiler, it appears to be as old as the house or would it be possible there could be a leak in the pipe running from the oil tank to the house? Thanks

Comment on The relative costs using different fuels to heat your home by eithne lynch

eithne lynch — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:42:44 +0000

very useful information. Is using an open fire of coal and some wood, with a back boiler very inefficient? Would it be worth the cost of replacing the open fire with a stove?

Comment on Concrete Ships by ALAN BOYLE

ALAN BOYLE — Mon, 13 May 2013 17:09:31 +0000

I would love to get one of these abandoned concrete boats back on the water and get it back in use again, the fact it was slow on the water would not matter as a part of history would be back afloat again.
If anyone has details of any Concrete boats abandoned I would be very interested in their where abouts and pictures if possible. You can send all details to my email address as follows boyle1062@yahoo.co.uk
Cheers ALAN
Sheffield S25 2RN

Comment on Why do steel railways not rust and fall apart? by Craig

Craig — Mon, 13 May 2013 09:35:21 +0000

Had a failure at a Siding here in South Africa, on the coast last week, due to corrosion of the flange, interesting “k.p.s.verma”, it’s not practice here to even look at the flange for corrosion, and your comment is the 1st I’ve seen to substantiate that this is a problem.

Comment on Bleeding a Firebird Popular 90 oil boiler by Mags

Mags — Sat, 27 Apr 2013 11:33:33 +0000

I loosened the wrong nut by mistake, while trying to figure out how to bleed it. I loosened the top air/fuel mixture and now it won’t ignite.
Is there any way to correct this or do I need a service?

Comment on Servicing an oil boiler: Firebird popular range by john

john — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 14:07:54 +0000

my oil burner keeps starting and stopping, i have just cleaned it out, have oil,checked thermostats, can you help please. burner is out side

Comment on Babylonian Law: The first building regulations by Hon

Hon — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 08:33:30 +0000

I thought the Roman’s brought the vast leap forward with their introduction of Engineering knowhow, including water supply and sanitation? We have Roman roads, canals, sewers to this day in the UK which are still functional. What baffles me is, before the invention of paper, how were the details worked out? If anyone has been to the folk museum to look at the old construction techniques, they are pretty basic with literally tree trunks and branches lashed together with twine and reeds. There were no mechanical means of fixings as nails had not yet been invented. Hence the knowledge is assumed to be passed down from father to son from one generation to the next.

I was thinking, are some of these laws subjective as opposed to being taken on a literary sense. Bearing in mind it is an interpretation of the scripture by scholars and translated into English. We have trouble interpreting Shakespeare some 400 years ago let alone some stone tablet 30,000 years ago. Were the Babylonians civilized or are they comparible to the developing nations of modern society?

If the majority of the population is illiterate, then the concept of “an eye for an eye” would be quite simple for the average person to understand and adhere to. Besides, the harsh punishment for false accusation is the likelihood of a death penalty, means for the majority of cases, you would not make any accusations unless you had proof. I think, the verse is metaphorical as opposed to being taken literally.

We know people float on water. We also know the majority of people living on the land can’t swim. So why would a law state for someone to leap into the river and the case be decided on the basis of whether he sinks or swims? I think it is metaphorically referring to proven innocent (swims) or guilty (sinks). If guilty, the accuser shall be compensated with the accused possession, which might not be much if they were poor farmers or slaves. If innocent, the accuser, shall be put to death. With that prospect in mind, I would say the vast majority of people would not make any sort of accusations on anyone without first catching the accused red handed. For example, walking in to find one’s wife in bed with the neighbour, etc.

Comment on Babylonian Law: The first building regulations by Ronan A. O'Reilly

Ronan A. O'Reilly — Thu, 11 Apr 2013 22:43:14 +0000

This article in my opinion is “awesome” (an american expression that seems apt)! It is really great to see that laws in relation to the construction of buildings have been around for a long while. Thanks for posting it!

How fascinating to learn to what degree this ancient Babylonian civilization went to ensure that buildings were constructed to what today might be considered a standarized methodology. Though Codes 66 to 99 of King Hammurabi are still missing may I suggest that these codes could have related to “plumbing standards” and that the following could be one of the missing regulations:

67. If a builder build a house for someone, and does not install a well (and the means to drink and bathe) correctly and also does not provide the means to remove foul water from the house, then that builder shall be put to death, the eldest son of that builder shall be put to death and all the remaining children, the slaves and the wives of the builder shall be bequeathed to the owner of the badly-constructed house

In my opinion losing this tablet and regulations 66-99 has unfortunately set back the evolution of building codes in relation to the installation of plumbing (at least in my relatively modern home where water leakages into the walls and onto the ceilings has been a common occurence)!